In classical music,
arioso is a style of
soloIn music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
between
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
and
ariaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
. Literally, arioso means
airy. The term arose in the 16th century along with the aforementioned styles and
monodyIn poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
. It is commonly confused with
recitativo accompagnatoRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
.
Arioso is similar to
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
due to its unrestrained structure and inflexions, close to those of speech. It differs however in its
rhythmRhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.-Rhythm in linguistics:...
. Arioso is similar to
ariaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
in its melodic form, both being closer to singing than recitative; however they differ in
formThe term musical form is often loosely used to refer to particular musical genres or styles , which may be determined by factors such as harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of musical instrument used as well as historical and geographical origins...
, arioso generally not resorting to the process of repetition.
At the start of the finale in the first act of Mozart's
The Magic FluteThe Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder...
, the andante of the priest (
Sprecher) "
Sobald dich führt des Freundschaft Hand ins Heiligtum zum ew'gen Band" is an example of arioso.
In classical music,
arioso is a style of
soloIn music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
between
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
and
ariaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
. Literally, arioso means
airy. The term arose in the 16th century along with the aforementioned styles and
monodyIn poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
. It is commonly confused with
recitativo accompagnatoRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
.
Arioso is similar to
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
due to its unrestrained structure and inflexions, close to those of speech. It differs however in its
rhythmRhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.-Rhythm in linguistics:...
. Arioso is similar to
ariaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
in its melodic form, both being closer to singing than recitative; however they differ in
formThe term musical form is often loosely used to refer to particular musical genres or styles , which may be determined by factors such as harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of musical instrument used as well as historical and geographical origins...
, arioso generally not resorting to the process of repetition.
Instances of arioso
At the start of the finale in the first act of Mozart's
The Magic FluteThe Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder...
, the andante of the priest (
Sprecher) "
Sobald dich führt des Freundschaft Hand ins Heiligtum zum ew'gen Band" is an example of arioso. "
Amor ti vieta", sung by Loris at
GiordanoUmberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
's
Fedora could be a modern arioso example.
One of the more famous ariosos was composed by
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, and serves as the
sinfoniaSinfonia is the Italian word for symphony. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera, oratorio, cantata, or suite...
of his
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment and often containing more than one movement.-Historical context:...
BWV 156, as well as the middle movement of the
harpsichord concertoA harpsichord concerto is a piece of music for an orchestra with the harpsichord in a solo role Sometimes these works are played on the modern piano; see piano concerto...
BWV 1056.
External links
Bach's Arioso played by cellist
Julian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd Webber is one of the world's most renowned solo cellists.-Early life:The British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...